To Lust is not to Love
by rach1803
Summary: Oneshot: On the night after the execution of Katherine Howard. Henry is left alone, until a familiar presence appears.


**Okay, so this is an idea I had. **

**Not too sure what I think about it but I'm just going to upload it and see what you guys think.**

**Hope its okay..**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Tudors.**

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><p>Henry sighed. He placed his weary head in his hands. The king of England had today executed his fifth wife. Katherine Howard, she had betrayed him. Committed adultery, she had hurt him. The young and innocent smile mocked, her beauty tricked him. As she welcomed another into her bed. It angered him. It saddened him.<p>

Henry felt his mind cast back, back to the last time he had executed his Queen. Back to her. His second wife. Anne Boleyn. The one he had torn the country apart for risked everything just to be her only. Except he wasn't her only, she too had hurt him betrayed him. She too had paid with her life.

The candle on the table fell to the floor, Henry looked up, bewildered. There was no wind. He felt a presence behind him, but no one was there. The king was tired, that was all. Stressed and broken from having yet another whore deceives him. Having another betray him. Another break his heart.

He heard a laugh. It rang through his chambers, echoed off the walls. Henry froze. It was not just any laugh. It was hers. The woman he so longed to forget. The one who had betrayed him first. The one that despite all these years, he still could not stop thinking about. Stop feeling her soft curls beneath his fingers. Her sweet lips beneath his. Her heavenly scent in his lungs. Anne.

Henry felt the presence again, he turned. But this time he was not alone. She was there. Stood watching him with those dark brown eyes. Those beautiful eyes. The hooks for the soul. She tilted her head slightly; the elegant tiara of sapphires and diamonds glinted on her head, her gown a rich silk of midnight blue. Even after her death she was so beautiful. She still made Henry's heartbeat. He turned away from her.

"What do you want Anne?" He questioned her gruffly. He did not want her here. She did not belong here anymore. She would not taunt him this way.

"Taunting you Henry? I am not taunting you. Why must you always play the innocent victim, hurt by the actions of others?" She questioned him, reading his mind. Henry glared up at her. "I see today you have murdered another." Her eyes narrowed as she watched him. He stood from his chair.

"She betrayed me! I gave her everything, yet she still betrayed me!" Henry yelled. Anne raised an eyebrow. "She did to me what you did." Anne laughed coldly.

"What I did to you? I did nothing to you. I was innocent. The charges against me, the accusations, were all false. Made up to remove me by Master Cromwell." She paused, "Remind me how is dear Thomas?"

"He failed me. He lied to me." Henry looked down remembering his once most trusted advisor, "He failed me."

"So you sent him too to his grave. Another mere mortal to fall in the presence of the great king. Another friend you killed." Anne walked towards him, eyes staring into Henry's soul. Making him feel. "And today, today a child joins them, a young girl, a moth drawn to the flame. A moth burned."

"No!" Henry yelled. How dare she do this to him, her. Her who betrayed him. Who failed him. Who tricked him with her sweet false promises, her twisted web of lies. "She was unfaithful. She made a fool of me!"

"She was a child. A child thrown into the arms of an old king by a pack of power hungry wolves. A pawn in the games at your court Henry. It was your greed that sealed her fate Henry. She was young, she did not wish to be married to an old man, and she wished to be free. But you trapped her, and killed her when she did not obey."

Henry shook his head, tears falling down his face. How dare she try to trick him again! This was not his fault. Henry walked away from her, towards the window. He stared out into his country.

"She was a whore! A liar! She was like you! You who I gave everything too! You who I tore this world apart for! You who threw everything into the fire! You who failed me!" Henry felt his body shake as anger and grief flow through his veins. Anne shook her head.

"You gave me everything. Everything but your heart, everything but your love and your faithfulness. Everything but your trust." Anne frowned. Henry turned to face her. "You gave me a crown Henry, but you took away my life."

"I loved you." Henry whispered. Anne shook her head again, laughing manically.

"No. No you did not. I loved you. You never loved me. If you loved me you would never have invited another to your bed. You would never have hated me for our daughter. You would never have looked for a new Queen. What you felt for me was not love Henry, but lust. I was just another marking on your bed, another conquest. You know not what love is." Henry walked back towards her shaking his head.

"No. No! That is not true. I loved you. I loved you! I gave up everything for you! But you broke your promises Anne, you lied to me." He stared at her. Sadness etched into his features. Despair lined his face. Why was she doing this? After all this time.

"You did not always keep your promises Henry." She whispered and Henry heard his own voice, his own words. Back when his love for Anne was strong and his faith complete in her.

_I would only be unhappy if you ever stopped loving me._

_London would have to melt into the Thames first._

"See Henry, you too were dishonest. You lied also. You promised to always love me; yet, you never loved me at all. You desired me. Nothing more." She stared at him again her eyes sad. "You do not hurt those that you love Henry."

"It was not I who hurt you, it was the executioner." Henry was confused, what did she want? Why was she here now? When all he wanted was peace. To be away from the world. To be away from her. Anne laughed again coldly shaking her head.

"My death did not hurt Henry, the executioner was very good, and it is true there was no pain. No I mean the pain which was brought by you, in your every betrayal. Every mistress you took burned me, as the impatience for your love once did. I was your Queen Henry, yet you broke my heart. It broke my heart to see you love another." She whispered the words. Yet they burned Henry, tears poured down his face. He looked to the floor as he fell to his knees.

"I was innocent, I begged you. One more chance. But you killed me Henry, long before the executioner came to England. You killed me when you crowned me. You ended my life when you lusted after another. I was innocent. You know not what love is Henry, to lust is not to love." Anne turned away.

"Anne wait!" Henry looked up. She was gone. Her words pressed guilt into his soul.

The king of England was alone again.

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><p><strong>Hope it was okay.<strong>

**Let me know in a review, they're always appreciated.**

**Rach.**


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